'Where's the birth certificate?'

Billboard campaign on presidential eligibility spreads through Texas

HOUSTON – The billboard campaign that helped change America's mind about Barack Obama's constitutional eligibility to serve as president is spreading through Texas this week, with a new sign in Houston, America's fourth-largest city.

The message is viewed while traveling west on IH 10 toward Columbus, Texas, and it is being illuminated from dusk until midnight. It's less than a mile west of the Katy suburb.

It's part of the campaign launched by WND founder and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah to make Barack Obama prove his eligibility.

When the signs, which by now have been posted in dozens of locations, first started appearing a WND poll revealed that roughly half of Americans were even aware of the questions over Obama's eligibility.

Now polls in recent weeks have revealed that some 6 in 10 Americans doubt whether Obama constitutionally is eligible to occupy the Oval Office.

Now polls in recent weeks have revealed that some 6 in 10 Americans doubt whether Obama constitutionally is eligible to occupy the Oval Office.

The most recent sign to go up was in Dallas, and earlier postings included locations in Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, California, Tennessee and San Antonio. It's also been asked in state and federal courts across the land, even in the U.S. Supreme Court, and also remains unanswered there.

Copycat signs also have appeared in locations ranging from Oregon to Denver.

The "Where's The Birth Certificate" question directly challenges Obama's authority to direct programs such as the government takeover of health care, Wall Street and Motor City.

The question pertains to the core issue raised in all of the legal and other challenges to Obama: Was he qualified under the requirements of the U.S. Constitution that the president be a "natural born citizen," a requirement not imposed on other federal officeholders.

The campaign was launched in 2009, and Farah attributes widespread interest in the great "birth-certificate controversy" to the billboard campaign that, he believes, rekindled the debate about Obama's constitutional eligibility for office. The campaign asks the simple but unanswered question, "Where's the birth certificate?"

The Dallas sign was posed on the west side of I-75 visible to traffic on the highway in the area just south of Churchill Way.

San Antonio has also been asked the question by a billboard on Loop 410, near Old Pearsall Road.

And earlier projects were in Florida and Tennessee:

The campaign has been sustained by contributions from WND visitors and others who have discovered it from simply driving past a billboard.

Farah is convinced that it's working and promises to sustain it if he can continue to get financial help.

"No matter how hard my colleagues try to make the public forget about this issue, no matter how hard they attempt to ridicule anyone who wants to see the proof, no matter how much they demean even decorated military officers who take their own oaths seriously, this issue will not go away. It's going to be around in 2012. It may even be the defining issue in 2012," he said.

Farah says he could not have pulled off the campaign without the support of WND's visitors. The cost of the billboards has been offset by donations – and Farah says he wants to step up the campaign because it's winning.

A recent CBS–New York Times poll showed only 58 percent of Americans even think Obama was born in the USA. Another later poll by CNN indicated six in 10 hold doubts about Obama's birth and, therefore, eligibility.

"I'm quite sure based on our own polls that if those people were asked whether they would like to see Obama release his birth certificate, more than half the country would say 'yes' – and all the other personal papers he has refused to disclose," Farah said.

Farah says the billboards have had a lot to do with changing popular opinion – even if the media don't get it.

"People simply shouldn't have to conjecture about where they think their president was born," he says. "It ought to be a matter of public record – and it clearly is not."

Aside from the billboard campaign, WND has devoted more investigative reporting to the issue of eligibility than "all other media outlets combined," says Farah.

In addition, the billboard campaign was rejected by three major billboard companies, all owned by major media outlets – CBS, Clear Channel and Lamar.

"What I need Americans to understand is that this billboard campaign is working," said Farah. "There is no shortage of billboards available to us. The only thing there's a shortage of is the money to erect them. We need to raise tens of thousands of dollars a month just to keep them in place."

"The impact of the billboards is magnified by local television and talk-radio shows in every market they enter," explains Farah. "It's not just the billboard. It's the earned media that comes along with it. It's astounding. We have turned millions of people around on this issue with the billboards. It's just that simple."

In addition to the billboard campaign, Farah has:

• produced a video-documentary primer on the issue called "A Question of Eligibility";
• produced a 40-page special report on the subject;
• manufactured yard and rally signs to bring attention to the topic;
• pledged to donate at least $15,000 to any hospital in Hawaii or anywhere else that provides proof Obama was born there and given you an opportunity to raise the amount;
• created a line of T-shirts you can wear to appearances by the president to raise visibility of the issue;
• created a fund to which you can donate to further the kind of investigative reporting into this matter only this company has performed over the last two years;
• launched a line of postcards you can use to keep the issue alive;
• distributed thousands of bumper stickers asking, "Where's the birth certificate?";
• perhaps most notably, gathered more than 500,000 names on a petition demanding any and all controlling legal authorities in this matter take appropriate action to see the requirements of the Constitution of the United States are followed;
• gathered another 25,000 names on a second petition attempting to rally state officials to make presidential candidates prove their eligibility before getting on ballots.

"There are all kinds of things we need to do right now to get our country back on track, but I can think of nothing more important than for us to see that our Constitution is observed, followed, adhered to and honored, especially when it comes to such simple, straightforward matters as the eligibility of the president of the United States," says Farah. "Please help me bring this matter to a head right now."

Billboard west of Houston   New "Where's the Birth Certificate?" billboard in Dallas   San Antonio billboard   Billboard in Nashville, Tenn.   Billboard near Panama City, Fla.   Billboard near Navarre, Fla.   Billboard near Bethel, Pa.

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